William Brooks Winchester was born 17 July 1895 in Painted Post, New York. The son of William W, Winchester of Pennsylvania and Jeanne V. Brooks of New York, Winchester moved to Arizona in 1919 at the age of 24. In 1920 Winchester lived at 512 Speedway with his parents and worked as a commercial technician for a motor company.

By 1925 he opened an architectural office in the Hereford Building in downtown Tucson and kept an independent office there until 1935.

Through few surviving documents, a handful of buildings are known to have been designed by Winchester, including many homes for Tucson’s elite. These projects articulate an expressive regional early twentieth century revival Pueblo and Spanish vocabulary.

Two of Winchester’s best known buildings, both designed in 1929, are the Ellinwood House in El Encanto Estates, and the Gilbert Duncan estate on Tucson’s east side.

In 1931, the Tucson home Winchester built for W. Gurnee was featured in American Builder and Building Age magazine.

At the age of 47, Winchester died of cardiac failure in Tucson on 23 February 1943. He was living with Dorothy Douglas in Tucson at 602 North 7th Avenue.